{"id":2324410,"date":"2024-08-14T13:04:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T17:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/complaint-accuses-cleveland-clinic-of-racial-discrimination\/"},"modified":"2024-08-14T13:13:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T17:13:59","slug":"complaint-accuses-cleveland-clinic-of-racial-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/complaint-accuses-cleveland-clinic-of-racial-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Complaint Accuses Cleveland Clinic Of Racial Discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcomplaint-accuses-cleveland-clinic-of-racial-discrimination%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2324410&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Cleveland Clinic, recognized as a leading hospital globally, faces allegations of racial discrimination through a civil\u2062 rights complaint filed by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/coca-cola-under-fire-for-legally-questionable-racial-quota-system\/\" title=\"Coca-Cola Under Fire for Legally Questionable Racial Quota System\">anti-discrimination group<\/a>\u200c Do No Harm\u200d (DNH). The \u2064complaint, submitted to\u200c the U.S. \u200bDepartment of Health and\u2064 Human \u2064Services, claims\u200d that the clinic&#8217;s Minority Stroke Program and\u200b Minority Men\u2019s Health\u200c Center systematically exclude white patients in favor\u2064 of\u2063 minorities, violating federal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/retired-nfl-player-calls-for-separate-transgender-category-of-sports-after-biden-executive-order\/\" title=\"Retired NFL Player Calls For Separate Transgender Category Of Sports After Biden Executive Order\">anti-discrimination laws<\/a> due to the clinic&#8217;s federal funding.<\/p>\n<p>Represented\u200d by the Wisconsin Institute for\u2063 Law \u200b&#038; Liberty, DNH argues\u2064 that these programs prioritize certain racial and\u200b ethnic \u200dgroups, promoting a racially motivated framework rather than providing \u2064equal care for\u2064 all patients. The Minority Stroke Program targets ethnic \u2062minorities for stroke prevention and treatment, while the Minority Men\u2019s Health \u2063Center addresses \u2062health issues impacting African American and Hispanic men. Critics assert that the clinic&#8217;s justification, based\u200d on\u200d disparities in health outcomes, does \u200bnot\u2064 exempt it from \u2064anti-discrimination laws.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint alleges violations of Title VI and the Affordable \u2063Care\u2062 Act, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-fed-nominee-has-history-of-black-lives-matter-bullying-support-for-reparations\/\" title=\"Biden Fed Nominee Has History of Black Lives Matter Bullying, Support for Reparations\">prohibit racial discrimination<\/a>\u2063 in federally funded \u200chealth programs. The argument posits that treating patients based on racial profiles \u200bis illegal \u2062and echoes historical precedents against &#8220;separate but equal&#8221; treatment. DNH aims for\u2062 the clinic to eliminate race-based distinctions in healthcare\u200d delivery to ensure that \u2062all patients receive equal treatment, regardless of their racial \u200dbackground.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Cleveland Clinic, widely regarded as the top-performing hospital globally, is accused of racial discrimination in an official civil rights complaint issued Wednesday by anti-discrimination healthcare organization Do No Harm (DNH).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The complaint, filed with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, alleges the clinic&rsquo;s Minority Stroke Program and Minority Men&rsquo;s Health Center engage in discriminatory practices by systematically excluding white patients in favor of minorities. The clinic receives federal funding and is subject to anti-discrimination laws that make such practices illegal.<\/p>\n<p>The health care professionals and patients of DNH, who &ldquo;[seek] to keep identity politics out of medical education, research, and clinical practice,&rdquo; are represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law &amp; Liberty (WILL).<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[E]xtending the care efforts described by the clinic&rsquo;s special stroke and men&rsquo;s health programs to all patients who need it would be commendable,&rdquo; WILL Associate Counsel Cara Tolliver and Deputy Counsel Daniel P. Lennington wrote in the official complaint letter.&nbsp;&ldquo;Instead, a racially motivated focus has infected these programs &mdash; creating a racial dichotomy under which patients are prioritized and cared for, and displacing the otherwise laudable goal of helping humanity equally, without regard to one&rsquo;s race.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with The Federalist, Tolliver emphasized the real consequences of racially discriminatory healthcare the DNH hopes to end.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[These] are everyday people in search of help regarding stroke and various other health conditions &hellip; encountering these racial preferences for programs that could be very helpful, and then being faced with the fact that Cleveland Clinic does not view or prioritize or otherwise care for all of its patients equally in the same manner, without regard to race,&rdquo; Tolliver explained.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Discriminatory Programs<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>The clinic&rsquo;s Minority Stroke Program is &ldquo;focused on preventing and treating stroke in racial and ethnic minorities,&rdquo; according to the medical center&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/departments\/neurological\/depts\/cerebrovascular\/minority-stroke-program\">website<\/a>. The program emphasizes the treatment of black and Latino adults and offers &ldquo;[r]eferrals to other medical providers,&rdquo; &ldquo;transportation assistance for in-person appointments,&rdquo; and &ldquo;community education events,&rdquo; among other specialized services.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A 2022 Cleveland Clinic <a href=\"https:\/\/consultqd.clevelandclinic.org\/closing-racial-gaps-in-cerebrovascular-mortality\">article<\/a> reveals that the program targets &ldquo;East Cleveland, a community where 90% of residents are Black.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Gwendolyn Lynch, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/gwendolyn-lynch-m-d-faha-37775212\/\">stroke specialist<\/a> and professor of neurology at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, <a href=\"https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/departments\/neurological\/depts\/cerebrovascular\/minority-stroke-program\">directs<\/a> the program.<\/p>\n<p>The Minority Men&rsquo;s Health Center is similarly discriminatory. The clinic&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/departments\/urology-kidney\/depts\/minority-mens-health-center#overview-tab\">website<\/a> specifies the center &ldquo;address[es] the health issues that particularly impact African American and Hispanic men.&rdquo; It also states that the program was created to &ldquo;address health disparities in minority populations.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Like the Minority Stroke Program, the Minority Men&rsquo;s Health Center provides a <a href=\"https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/departments\/urology-kidney\/depts\/minority-mens-health-center#what-we-treat-tab\">wide array <\/a>of services, including health exams, primary care, &ldquo;referrals for specialized care,&rdquo; &ldquo;prescription assistance,&rdquo; and &ldquo;spiritual care.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The goal Do No Harm seeks here is for the clinic to remove its race-based motivation and focus in these programs and open them up equally to all patients,&rdquo; Tolliver told The Federalist. &ldquo;They should not be segregating their services or offering separate tracks of services based on a patient&rsquo;s skin pigmentation.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The DNH is drawing attention to patients who are allegedly affected by racist policies that deny white patients the benefits of these services.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Race discrimination is a defining feature of these programs; and this discrimination is present and ongoing,&rdquo; Tolliver and Lennington wrote in the complaint. &ldquo;Everyday people in search of help &hellip; are faced with the fact that the clinic does not view, prioritize, promote, or otherwise care for all patients equally, in the same manner, without regard to race.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Treating Patients as Individuals<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>The clinic cites disparate rates of stroke and other risk factors as justification for racial discrimination in its healthcare programs. Its <a href=\"https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/departments\/neurological\/depts\/cerebrovascular\/minority-stroke-program\">website<\/a> notes &ldquo;deaths from stroke are two times higher in Black Americans than in Americans overall&rdquo; and &ldquo;nearly one-third of Latinos have diabetes,&rdquo; among other statistics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In response to the initiative to balance health disparities, WILL attorneys emphasized that &ldquo;anti-discrimination laws require treating patients as individuals.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[J]ust as Jim Crow segregations could not resort to race to allocate goods or services &hellip; Cleveland Clinic may not assume that a person needs any particular type of care effort based on race, nor attempt to ensure &lsquo;proper&rsquo; racial balance,&rdquo; Tolliver and Lennington wrote. &ldquo;Treating individual patients as racial archetypes to &lsquo;fix&rsquo; group differences is beyond the remit of a healthcare entity; and in any event, it is illegal.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The complaint accuses Cleveland Clinic of violating Title VI and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).<\/p>\n<p>Title VI <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/civil-rights\/for-individuals\/race\/index.html\">outlaws<\/a> racial discrimination for recipients of federal funding, like the clinic. Specifically, the Cleveland Clinic may not &ldquo;provide services or benefits in a different manner from those provided to others,&rdquo; &ldquo;[s]egregate or separately treat individuals in any matter related to the receipt of any service or other benefit,&rdquo; or &ldquo;rest its actions upon any <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/black-americans-sue-new-york-city-for-racially-discriminatory-policy-allowing-foreign-nationals-to-vote\/\" title=\"Black Americans Sue New York City for &#039;Racially Discriminatory&#039; Policy Allowing Foreign Nationals to Vote\">racially discriminatory purpose<\/a> or intention.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The ACA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/42\/18116\">bans<\/a> racial discrimination in &ldquo;any health program or activity, any part of which is receiving Federal financial assistance.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>WILL attorneys argue that the clinic&rsquo;s racially distinguished initiatives amount to &ldquo;separate but equal&rdquo; patient treatment, which has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/2022\/20-1199\">been illegal<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/milestone-documents\/brown-v-board-of-education#:~:text=Citation%3A%20Brown%20v.,Record%20Group%20267%3B%20National%20Archives.&amp;text=In%20this%20milestone%20decision%2C%20the,basis%20of%20race%20was%20unconstitutional.\">since 1954<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[T]he underlying goals &hellip; rest on an impermissible interest &lsquo;in race for race&rsquo;s sake&rsquo;&mdash; aiming to balance the scales of mortality and morbidity with nothing more than a bare reliance on a patient&rsquo;s skin pigmentation,&rdquo; Tolliver and Lennington wrote.<\/p>\n<h4>Hospital Executives<\/h4>\n<p>WILL notified Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Tomislav Mihaljevic and Chair of the Board of Directors Beth Mooney in a separate notice of complaint sent on Wednesday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In short, race or skin color does not make a human being more or less healthy, and using race as a proxy for legitimate health risks is a dangerous practice,&rdquo; Tolliver and Lennington wrote in the notice. &ldquo;Cleveland Clinic should be operating its programming in a manner that equally prioritizes, promotes, pursues, and includes <em>all<\/em> at-risk patients, without reliance on racial stereotyping and segregated, distinctions.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The official complaint has the potential to trigger an investigation of the Cleveland Clinic by the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services. <\/p>\n<p>Tolliver told The Federalist that DNH hopes the Cleveland Clinic will end its racial discrimination without further action, but emphasized the onus is on the clinic to take action.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If Cleveland Clinic determines, in the meantime, to remove those racial motivations and the biases for its programs in favor of an approach of an equal approach to patient care, without regard to race, we will, of course, immediately withdraw the complaint,&rdquo; Tolliver said. &ldquo;Our hope is that it could be just that easy, and they decide to do the right thing in this case. So the ball will &hellip; be in their court and we will proceed accordingly.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Monroe Harless is a recent graduate of the University of Georgia with degrees in journalism and political science.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cleveland Clinic, often recognized as the leading hospital in the world, is facing allegations of racial discrimination following a civil rights complaint filed on Wednesday by the anti-discrimination healthcare group Do No Harm (DNH). The complaint, submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, claims that the clinic&#8217;s Minority Stroke Program and Minority Men\u2019s Health Center practice discrimination by systematically favoring minority patients over white patients. As a recipient of federal funding, Cleveland Clinic is bound by anti-discrimination laws that prohibit such practices.<\/p>\n<p>The healthcare professionals and patients represented by DNH are supported by the Wisconsin Institute for Law &amp; Liberty (WILL), which advocates for keeping identity politics out of medical education and practice. In their official complaint letter, WILL Associate Counsel Cara Tolliver and Deputy Counsel Daniel P. Lennington stated that it would be commendable for the clinic to extend its care efforts to all patients in need rather than focusing racially motivated priorities that create a division among patients based on race.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with The Federalist, Tolliver highlighted how these discriminatory practices impact everyday individuals seeking help for strokes and other health issues who find themselves facing racial preferences in programs designed to assist them. <\/p>\n<p>The Minority Stroke Program specifically targets stroke prevention and treatment within racial and ethnic minority groups, particularly emphasizing care for Black and Latino adults while providing various supportive services like transportation assistance and community education events. A 2022 article from Cleveland Clinic noted that this program focuses on East Cleveland\u2014a predominantly Black community.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, the Minority Men\u2019s Health Center aims to address health issues affecting African American and Hispanic men while offering services such as health exams, primary care referrals, prescription assistance, and spiritual support.<\/p>\n<p>Tolliver expressed DNH&#8217;s goal of urging Cleveland Clinic to eliminate race-based motivations from these programs so they can be accessible equally to all patients without segregation based on skin color. The organization highlights concerns about how these policies allegedly deny white patients access to essential services.<\/p>\n<p>The clinic justifies its racially focused initiatives by citing disparities in stroke rates among different demographics; however, WILL attorneys argue that anti-discrimination laws mandate treating each patient as an individual rather than making assumptions based on race or attempting to achieve demographic balance through service allocation.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint accuses Cleveland Clinic of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as well as Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), both prohibiting racial discrimination against recipients of federal funds like hospitals. According to WILL attorneys&#8217; arguments against separate treatment initiatives at Cleveland Clinic\u2014deemed illegal since 1954\u2014the underlying goals appear rooted in inappropriate reliance on race alone rather than legitimate health needs.<\/p>\n<p>WILL has also informed key executives at Cleveland Clinic about this complaint while stressing that using race as a proxy for health risks is dangerous practice. They urge that programming should prioritize all at-risk patients equally without resorting to racial stereotypes or distinctions.<\/p>\n<p>This formal complaint could lead to an investigation into Cleveland Clinic by the Office for Civil Rights within Health and Human Services if not resolved promptly; however, Tolliver expressed hope that they might voluntarily rectify their approach before further action becomes necessary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3175,"featured_media":2324411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-28-at-1.07.42-PM-e1588097762589.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38123,38124,36235,35485],"class_list":["post-2324410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cleveland-clinic","tag-health-care-equity","tag-legal-complaint","tag-racial-discrimination"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-28-at-1.07.42-PM-e1588097762589.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2324410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2324411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2324410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2324410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2324410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}